


Don't Panic! No, Not Yet!

by bookishnerdhero



Category: Champions (Comics), Ms. Marvel (Comics), Nova (Comics)
Genre: Awkward Crush, Awkwardness, F/M, Fluff, Museums, Not a Date, Secret Identity, Stalking, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 14:08:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19427527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookishnerdhero/pseuds/bookishnerdhero
Summary: Ms. Marvel goes to an Avengers exhibit for a field trip and the last person she expected to see there was Nova without the Nova helmet, and just regular Sam Alexander with his little sister! But she's just Kamala then and he can't know her secret identity. What happens? /ONE SHOT/





	Don't Panic! No, Not Yet!

**Author's Note:**

> (Yes, the title’s a lyric from Fall Out Boy’s “Miss Missing You”. So I’m going to pretend that’s the theme song of this.)  
> This is just a short fic of Ms. Marvel x Nova. I've had this in FFN and Wattpad for a while now and decided to post here. I haven’t done fanfiction in a seriously long time when I wrote this, but I got curious with seeing what would happen if I attempted to make one again. Also, please forgive me for any accuracy mistakes (storywise, canonwise and OoCness) because I was still trying to get up to speed on everything comics.
> 
> Disclaimer: I obviously don't own any of the Marvel characters, not Ms. Marvel or Nova or Spidey or the Avengers and other superheroes mentioned. I don't own Fall Out Boy's song either. But I love them and that's enough for me.  
> Anyway, hope you enjoy reading!

**Ms. Marvel**

The last thing Kamala Khan, secretly Ms. Marvel, expected to see during her class’ fieldtrip to the ironically new Avengers Museum was a certain space traveling teen hero _without_ the helmet. She’d seen Nova without it numerous times before and he even introduced himself as Sam to her personally. Ever since Ms. Marvel, Nova and Spiderman joined and _left_ the Avengers, the three became close. They eventually started out their own team, The Champions, with the addition of the teen genius, Hulk, Vision’s cool daughter, Viv and a younger Cyclops.

It was all really fun and they’ve already had their first few serious missions, as she liked to call it in her head. It was more than just games and wasn’t just for kicks though, she knew that. Superhero-ing is a lot more work, stress and responsibility than it looked even with everything she knew from writing fanfiction. She was well aware of the things she’d have to take care of and take seriously, one of them being her secret identity.

Even after everything that’s one of the rules she’d kept with herself and she guarded with her life. It was awkward and intense the first time she thought she was pressured to reveal her identity, with the very same Nova who just assumed it as a great idea to “start over”. It had been a mess and would’ve made things harder for them because he hadn’t known how protective and guarded she was. So now seeing him across the room, arms crossed and frowning at a replica of Thor’s hammer, made her stomach jolt and she ducked behind her best friend Bruno who had been talking to his girlfriend.

“What?” Bruno asked because Kamala had freaked, mumbled “Just a sec, Mike” and hauled him behind a pillar next to a life sized Iron Man, all while using his tall frame to shield her from view. Though Sam had already moved on with the crowd with a little girl holding his hand.

“It’s Nova!” she hissed.

Bruno raised an eyebrow and looked at a part of the exhibit that had photos taken during one of the Avenger’s battles. One of the pictures had Nova zooming, all blue and light, across the frame and blocking part of Ms. Marvel from the shot.

“Yeah, it’s a really good shot of him. Shutter speed and aperture tricks. Dang, it captured that blue light thing pretty well. Sorry it covered you though.” Bruno said, squinting his eyes and studying the picture.

“What? No!” Kamala pulled him by the sleeve. “He’s here, like legit here!”

“Whoa.” Bruno looked around. “Where?”

“He’s right-“it then occurred to Kamala that giving out Nova’s identity to her best friend wasn’t fair of her and closed her yap. “I mean, I can’t tell you but he’s here alright.”

“What?” Bruno said slightly disappointed but knew not to argue. “Okay, fine. And so what if he’s here?”

They were starting to look suspicious and stalkery because as Bruno was talking Kamala started to walk and pull him around, following Sam while trying to not seem like she’s following Sam.

“Are we following him?” Bruno asked because Kamala had just ducked behind a giant fake Hulk’s fist.

“Sort of.”

“I don’t get it.”

“I’m checking if it’s really hi-d’oh, yep. It’s him.” She said, peeking and catching a glimpse of Sam’s blue eyes, boredly facing a beautiful picture of the stars in the sky. It was a photo of Ironman and Thor but they were too small and the idea must’ve been to show off the pretty sky background. He yawned while the little girl next to him was standing on her tiptoes, squinting, as she tried to look for the heroes in the picture.

Bruno tried to peek too, following Kamala’s gaze, but she shoved his face back. “Nope.”

“Again, why are we doing this? What’s the big deal if he’s here?”

“I can’t let him see me as Kamala! What if he recognizes me? Or my voice or something?”

“Yes, following him and sneaking around is the best way to make sure he doesn’t.”

“Should I take your picture with Hulk?” Mike was suddenly standing there, confused with why Kamala and Bruno were crouching and acting like Spy Kids geeks and startling them both.

“Er, sure. Kamala was just wondering what it would feel like to be under the protection of Hulk’s giant fist. Will it make her feel squashable?” Bruno covered, fake-smiling helplessly.

“Okay then.” Mike took out her phone. “I think it’s okay to take pictures as long as the flash is off, right?”

But just as Mike started to count to take their photos and they started to smile for the camera phone, Kamala heard the little girl say “Oooh, Sam, I wanna’ picture with Hulk too!”

“Hold on, Kaelynn! Geez. Wait for your turn!”

Kamala turned her head too quickly and, for some stupid reason, automatically sucked in her lips to keep her from talking.

“Oh, you moved.” Mike said. “One more.” But Sam and the little girl, Kaelynn, were already, like literally standing there in front of her, waiting. Kamala tensed up. If she smiled, would he recognize her?

***

**NOVA**

Ever since Kaelynn found out about Sam being Nova and how all of their dad’s stories were true, she never doubted them anyway, she’d been extra excited about anything to do with superheroes and the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. But no way would their mom let her in on anything and she had to promise not to tell any of her friends, or else you can’t be one in the future, Sam added. Which only made her keener on the concept. She’d started spending too much time googling superheroes and watching videos about them online.

For her birthday, Sam promised her he’d take her somewhere she wants to go to, by flight. Their mother, miraculously, agreed to let them go so long as she wears some kind of other helmet to keep flying bugs away from her face and she’d keep quiet about it. Otherwise, she’s never flying again and no more superheroes. And of course, that _somewhere_ had to be in New York for that new Avengers exhibit and since she wasn’t allowed to actually meet the Avengers, because their mom would have a heart attack if another one of them gets dragged into any trouble, she’d thought this would be fair.

“Take a picture of me with Hulk, Sam! Oh, oh and Captain Marvel! But why isn’t there a Ms. Marvel statue, Sam? Or of y-“

He was quick to cover her mouth, and smiled sheepishly at the group of teenagers getting their pictures taken with the “life sized” Hulk statue. “Sure thing, Kaelynn. Just be quiet and try to behave, okay? Remember? You promised mom.” 

“But where is the Ms. Marvel statue? I want to see Ms. Marvel!” Go figure that Kaelynn’s superhero idol would be Ms. Marvel. He’d skipped mentioning it to Ms. M during their Champions practices, mostly because it was trivial and embarrassing and she’d been so caught up on leader-mode anyway.

“I don’t think there is any.” Or of Nova or Spidey. The Champions were just a starting thing. Then again, it’s weird that this whole Avengers exhibit thing was here considering all that’s been happening regarding superheroes, Inhumans and the like. The little kids still thought it was cool, some of the older people less so. Lately, what it means to be a hero seems a lot more complicated and that’s how he, Spidey and Ms. M left the Avengers. They’ve been trying to fix the way people looked at heroes and wanted to make a difference with the Champions.

“Oh, but there’s a picture there of Nova, Sam! Look!” she pointed across the hall. Her eyesight was good and unfortunately so was her voice. She was quick to forget the Hulk statue and ran for the pictures.

“Yeah, don’t shout, Kaelynn!”

“Nova is flying here!” she smiled a big toothy grin, it almost would’ve been obvious. He’d taught her that if she wanted to talk about him as Nova, she would refer to him as Nova and avoid saying “you”. _It’s like a game, you see? You’ll have to pretend I’m someone else when I’m Nova and act like we’re not the same person._

“Yeah, he is.” Sam said, wondering why he agreed to this, knowing Kaelynn could endanger his secret. He pouted at the picture and glared. “Why do I- he looks so derp in this one? They couldn’t have taken a better shot?”

“Nova’s covering Ms. Marvel in this photo! I can’t see her!” Kaelynn shouted and pointed. He could see the edge of Ms. Marvel’s costume and some of her hair from behind the blue light left as a streak when he flew past. Her hands were _embiggened_ and, though he’d seen her use her powers plenty of times, he found it unusually new to see it in a photo. He stared at the picture, somehow weirded out. “Dang, her hands look like they’re part of a bizzaro, surreal painting.”

“I ship them, you know.” Kaelynn said simply.

Sam paused his train of thought. Wait. Ship? That’s a word Ms. Marvel and Spidey used when they talk about fanfiction. What did it mean again?

Some processing and flashbacks later he said. “What?! Why???”

Kaelynn shrugged. “You need a love life, Sam.”

“Shhh! Hold on, Kaelynn. I’m going to have to draw the line with shipping.” Sam said, putting up his index finger in the air. “One, these are real people and you can’t just assume and think they _should_ have feelings for each other! I mean, I’m- that is, he – Nova doesn’t see her that way.” _Anymore._ Admittedly he did once think he was “falling in love” with the girl who is Ms. Marvel, but how stupid would that be? He’s never even met the real her. Who could be that heroic, 24/7? He’d done stupid, embarrassing things in her expense, and it’s obvious she doesn’t want anyone getting too close and personal with her. Wait, what exactly did he mean by that? Nope. Not going down that train.

“But I just think they’d be really cute together.” She smiled, like she’s asking him to buy her ice cream instead of suggesting he and Ms. Marvel should be a thing. “Don’t you think she’s awesome, Sam?”

He gave a sideways glance around in case anyone had been listening in on this embarrassing conversation, though it would’ve just seemed endearing. But most of the crowd had moved on to the next room. There were only a handful of people around, still taking pictures with the statues and this one girl with brown hair stuffing herself behind a pillar, furiously texting.

Coincidentally, his phone buzzed in his pocket and he checked it.

It was a text from Spidey.

**Nova, I bet I can guess where you are right now.**

Spiderman was quick to answer himself.

**Avengers exhibit, right? Should’ve told me! I can still swing by.**

Sam texted back.

**Personal biz. Don’t bother, it’s boring. How did you know?**

When Spidey replied, Sam had no idea why he’d just blushed and squinted real hard at his phone.

**Ms. Marvel’s there too and she totally saw you.**

**Ms. Marvel**

Okay, so maybe Nova couldn’t recognize her smile beneath a giant fake Hulk statue and the excited jumpiness of his sister. It was actually pretty endearing the way he acted patiently as the little girl dragged him across the room. Admittedly, Kamala’s ears perked up when she heard the name “Ms. Marvel” come out of the excited chatter. Who was she kidding? She couldn’t help listening in and she swore it took a lot of will power not to embiggen her ear too since Sam was insistent on hushing his voice down to a whisper. This was all very overwhelming and too funny and weird a happening that she had instinctively started texting Spidey furiously just so she could rant and freak out with someone. Mike had wanted to take more pictures and wasn’t like Bruno had a surplus of lies to cover for how Kamala was acting so he went with her. They’d had a little eye conversation – argument – where she just kept pointing her pupils to follow Sam’s retreating figure. Meaning she’ll continue following him and Bruno kept narrowing his eyes – bad idea. But she followed Sam anyway because, duh, the kid mentioned Ms. Marvel!

Her text to Spidey was quick and to the point.

**OMG! I decided to go the fieldtrip to the Avengers exhibit. Cuz Captain Marvel. And guess what! Nova’s here!**

The little girl and Sam started approaching the picture of Nova where he was covering Ms. Marvel in the shot. She pointed at the picture and was shouting despite Sam’s efforts to calm her. Kamala ducked behind a pillar.

Spidey replied.

**What??? You two went to the Avengers Exhibit without me?**

She was about to text a ‘no’ with an explanation in response but Spidey added in another text.

**Wait…are you two on a date?**

Kamala felt like pushing her head way back and away from her phone, not minding if it crushed the pillar she was leaning on, at the sight of such text. But she didn’t. That could break the foundation of this place.

**NO! Dude! Don’t even go there! I just saw him in the crowd with a little girl. He’s probably babysitting. I’m freakin’ because I’m not exactly Ms. Marvel right now.**

Kamala added the emoticon that looked like “The Scream” three times. He replied after a minute.

**So who are you now?**

She shook her head.

**Nice try.**

She added a smiley emoticon that had its tongue out.

**Anyway, the little girl he’s with is a fan of Ms. Marvel and is absolutely cute!**

She added a smiley face emoticon and didn’t mention that she was still actually eavesdropping on their conversation. She expected the girl to say more nice thigs about Ms. Marvel when she complained Nova was covering her in the shot. What she ended up hearing after that almost choked her with her own quick intake of air as the girl said she “shipped” Ms. Marvel and Nova. And here Kamala had been thinking that she had a cute little fan and it was all very flattering, smiling to herself, crouching like an idiot behind the pillar. The kid thought she was awesome. It almost reminded her of how she thought Captain Marvel was awesome and it was like a cycle of awesomeness being passed down. But then you would expect a record scratch in real life at the thought that she also put Ms. Marvel and Nova in the same sentence as “they’d be really cute together”.

Kamala cringed. This was almost as horrifying as the time she came upon a love triangle fanfic of her, Spidey and Nova. It was all so wrong and they totally didn’t get it. She felt the strong urge to explain or defend herself. She demanded justice for the awkwardness she’d had to endure. How can _anyone_ ship the two of them? What’s worse was how affected she was with the way Sam reacted to the little girl’s suggestion. It was hard not to glance at his direction, but his back was turned to her.

“Don’t you think she’s awesome, Sam?” the girl had said.

It seemed as if both Kamala’s and her Ms. Marvel alter ego were waiting for a reply to that as Sam went rigid and glanced around the room in case someone was listening. Meaning her, so she went back to texting.

**This is getting really weird for me, real fast! I can’t believe this is happening and I’ve honestly heard too mu-**

Her thumbs were pressing her phone’s screen rapidly, but she paused, realized how stupid she’d sound to Spidey and erased the whole thing as furiously as she typed it. This is ridiculous. She shook her head and made to stand up. She shouldn’t be listening in and the fact that she’d heard too much already had sent a blush creeping up her cheeks. It was embarrassing enough for Sam to be told that, much worse if he found out she was there and had heard it too. She wondered if the kid knew she was shipping two heroes that were both there. Then again, she was starting to piece it together that it could be his little sister. She sort of looked like him. They had the same blue eyes and dark hair, but Sam had an almost angry looking default face while his sister looked sweeter. Kamala wondered if she ever heard Nova mention he had a sister. She took a peek again. Sam had taken out his phone from his pocket and was reading text as the girl continued on to another picture.

He glanced around again. There was only a handful of people left from the crowd that moved on to the next part of the exhibit, in the next room, and she should be following them. He would be none the wiser if she just walked off, but just as she passed the Thor hammer replica, Kamala’s phone vibrated again.

It wasn’t Spiderman this time.

**Are you in the Avengers exhibit too?**

Before she had a chance to text a lie, she saw Sam put his phone to his ear.

**_Rocket is Calling…_ **

****

……..

**NOVA**

Sam figured if he called Ms. Marvel, he could easily pinpoint it if someone suddenly whips out their phone to answer him. And then…

Well, then he would finally know, right? He’d finally see what’s underneath the mask and it’s all just by chance. Right? What are the odds that they would both end up in the Avengers exhibit on the same day, both in civilian and not as their superhero alter-egos for once? It was too tempting not to try. He was biting back a smile that almost seemed to give away the eagerness he felt at finding her.

The phone was still ringing. He glanced around the room again, searching the faces and trying to bring to mind Ms. Marvel’s features. Not the costume. Something that’s hard to miss. He singled out the teenagers he could see that were left behind from the group that came for a fieldtrip. He tried to focus on their faces from where he stood as nonchalantly as possible. He relayed the image of Ms. M in his head. There were flashes of memories of her fighting, giving her speeches, gushing about Captain Marvel, or frowning disapprovingly at him. The way she called him a jerk.

She would probably call him a jerk for what he’s doing now. She wasn’t answering and Spidey said she _saw him_. Obviously, she didn’t exactly run up to say hi. She wouldn’t. He recalled that one time she was wrongly kicked out of the Avengers because of a mistake and he found her waiting at a bus stop in New Jersey. She had been seriously upset and her mask was off and he wouldn’t look at her as they talked. It was the right thing to do considering she valued her secret identity that much and he’d already made the mistake of assuming it was okay to let her know his.

After one last ring, he felt stupid and cancelled the call. She wouldn’t want this. This was him practically setting her up because he was curious about her. It was wrong. Ms. Marvel was someone you admired and he realized he doesn’t actually blame Kaelynn for looking up to her. It was in the way he was always nodding in agreement when she gets all riled up about something, there whenever she needed back up. It was the fact that she was everything that demanded attention and respect because that’s what she was, a hero who stands up for what she believes in. They were friends. He’d figured Spidey must’ve had a thing for her too and it was probably a silent understanding between the two boys, though both won’t admit it. None of them were going to get anywhere with Ms. Marvel anyway. She was just that cool girl. 

He’d tried to flirt with Viv a few times, which was probably one of the reasons he’d justified that he was over it with Ms. M. If he could be interested in trying to get the attention of someone else, it was probably nothing now. He’d went on date as Sam Alexander once too, with a girl who didn’t know he was Nova and they actually had a pretty good time. Ms. M was his friend and he valued that probably just as much as she valued her secret identity. And hey, he cares about keeping his secret as far as he can keep it, so it’s only fair. He stopped trying to scan the room for her too, her smile, the sound of her voice, her hair…

There was that girl with the brown hair from the pillar a while ago. She was now standing by the Thor hammer replica and had her back turned to him. She was wearing a dark blue jacket and jeans, but he couldn’t see past her shoulder length brown hair and her light brown skin. From this angle, it could be. But of course, to ruin all that dramatic realization and tension, Kaelynn was standing right in front of the girl and was talking to her. The ship is strong in this one.

“I like your Captain Marvel shirt!”

“Thanks, little girl. I…er…like your Captain America shirt.” The girl mumbled making her voice small. He didn’t know why but somehow he still recognized it. She used it that one time when she was trying to pretend she wasn’t Ms. Marvel back at the bus stop. She really sucked at faking.

“Sam, look! I want a shirt like this!” Kaelynn said. The girl was about to turn around to look at him. He noticed how Ms. Marvel seemed hesitant and tried to move slowly.

“Wait! Don’t!” he ended up saying. The girl went stiff, arms at the side, but was already at the act of turning to look if he was behind her. Instead, he turned a bit and tried to stare at the wall, with only a blurred, sideways view of her.

“What?”

He couldn’t think of what to say and honestly his heart was pounding. _Don’t look. Don’t look._ It was almost as if they were the only people in the room. The moment was delicate, one wrong move and they’d be in a place they both wouldn’t want to be in. Kaelynn was probably confused, but he can’t let his little sister know. She wouldn’t let Ms. M go so easily and it would cause a scene.

“You don’t have to.” He found himself saying despite the fact that it could almost seem like a longshot that it is Ms. Marvel, but he was somehow sure too. “It’s okay. I _know_.”

He hoped she got the message.

“K-Kaelynn, don’t talk to strangers. Let’s go.” He added, finding himself moving away as he said an awkward. “I’m sorry for bothering you, ma’am.”

Kaelynn followed after him, grumbling and saying “But Sam, I didn’t get to ask where she got that shirt!”

When he reached the next room, he let out a sigh of relief.

……

**Ms. Marvel**

Later that night, Ms. Marvel, Spiderman and Nova opened up a group chat.

**WebsMan: So how was the Avengers exhibit, you two?**

**CaptainMCool4Eva: Ironic. It felt sort of weird to be there.**

**HumanRocketBest: It was fine…boooring!**

**CaptainMCool4Eva: No, it wasn’t!**

**WebsMan: Wait, didn’t you two see each other?**

**HumanRocketBest: I didn’t even see her! Looked for her. Didn’t find her.**

**WebsMan: What? But she saw you! Why didn’t you go say hi to Rocket?**

**HumanRocketBest: That’s what I’d like to know too!**

**CaptainMCool4Eva: I didn’t exactly want to. I was in civilian, so hard pass. Also, the group was leaving me behind so I had to catch up.**

Kamala pulled herself away from her laptop, clicking in the last words with a flourish. She just wanted to forget that the whole awkward moment ever happened and it was a close call. It was honestly stupid of her to risk her identity like that and she should’ve known better. She skipped telling Bruno what happened after hearing Ms. Marvel has a fan. She didn’t think he needed to know how said fan shipped her with Nova and how she was this close to facing Sam as Kamala.

 _“You don’t have to.”_ He turned himself sideways and didn’t look at her. It had shocked her that he was, like, literally behind her. _“It’s okay. I know.”_

Kamala pursed her lips and drummed her fingers on the table, eyes on the screen, waiting for Nova’s username but he had just _Seenzoned_ her.

_……._

**Nova**

Sam smirked at his phone. He had babysitting duty while his mom was in her painting class and there wasn’t any Champions training to use as an excuse to find a different babysitter for Kaelynn. She was drawing on the floor and sure enough, was doodling Nova and Ms. Marvel. She held out the picture for him to see. It was the two of them holding hands.

“That’s supposed to be me? Why is my Nova helmet green?”

“I ran out of dark blue and I didn’t want to use the black. It smudges on the colors!”

Sam shook his head and said “You know what? I almost ship it too.”

……..

**END**

**Author's Note:**

> Alright! I referenced that scene in All-New, All-Different Avengers where Sam and Kamala are talking in the bus stop. It’s actually one of the scenes that made me love this ship. It’s almost a miracle to me that Ms. Marvel and Nova actually did end up becoming part of a team and friends because I just came up with shipping these two randomly before (back in 2015) when I just happened to love Nova and Ms. Marvel’s characters and ended up making some fanart of them. Imagine how huzzah! a moment it was when they actually did make these two awesome characters meet! Also, Spidey, Miles Morales, is too precious and I absolutely love them as a trio, so I couldn’t resist adding him in this fic. 
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading! Let me know what you think of the story! Want me to continue making Ms.Marvel x Nova fics? Want to suggest a situation story? Is that a thing that can be done? Who knows? These are the questions we ask – leave a message at the comments! 
> 
> TO GOD BE THE GLORY!


End file.
